 Most American Evangelicals still don’t believe they share any responsibility for global warming or think it is worth fixing.
|
  |   |
Religious conflicts can obstruct science. A genetics paper has been rejected after peer approval, because the conclusions were perceived as politically biased. It showed the genetic background of Palestinians matched that of ancient Jews. This conclusion is established by at least four other high-quality published studies (links below).
Palestinians are descended from Jews who remained in the land when others dispersed after Rome destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70. When Islamic armies arrived in AD 636, most of them changed religion, but their genes remained Jewish.
This has been reported by Palestinian and Jewish publications, but continued conflict has made these findings inappropriate.
Articles:
Palestinians are descended from Jews who remained in the land when others dispersed after Rome destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70. When Islamic armies arrived in AD 636, most of them changed religion, but their genes remained Jewish.
This has been reported by Palestinian and Jewish publications, but continued conflict has made these findings inappropriate.
Articles:
- Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement:
https://imemc.org/article/the-law-of-return-and-the-zionist-campaign-to-subvert-science/ - Jewish newspaper HaAretz (in English)
https://www.haaretz.com/science-and-health/2015-10-20/ty-article/0000017f-dc0e-df9c-a17f-fe1e57730000
- Human Immunology, 2001 (retracted though it passed peer review)
https://europepmc.org/article/med/11543891 (only the Abstract remains) - American Journal of Human Genetics, 2010:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3032072/ - Nature, 2010:
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature09103.pdf - Journal Human Genetics, 2012:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3543766/ - Genome Biology and Evolution, 2013:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3595026/
The Big Bang was a derogatory name given by Fred Hoyle to a theory he disliked because it was too similar to Genesis. He countered with the theory of Continuous Creation which was debunked by McCrea in a famous lecture for the Victoria Institute (now Faith & Thought - see https://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/jtvi/1951_105.pdf).
New findings from the Web Telescope are reviving an even older counter to the Big Bang: the “Tired Light Theory”. This proposes that light slows down as it travels. This doesn’t overturn the Big Bang, as Hoyle wanted - but it would mean that it was much longer ago.
Paper at: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-712X/7/3/41
Article at: https://www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2024/09/the-tired-light-theory-and-james-webb-telescope-observations-challenge-the-validity-of-the-big-bang/
Göbekli Tepe, an archaeological site in southern Turkey, appears to be a Neolithic temple site. Its intricate 3D carvings of animals date to 10,000 BC when agriculture was being invented here. All the world's wheat genetically descends from their crops.
Some carvings have now been interpreted as a lunar-solar calendar, and some of the animals as constellations. The spread of agriculture was accompanied by structures to indicate the solstices - such as Stonehenge about 3000 BC when it finally reached the edge of Europe. Such structures were needed to know when best to plant crops. But an understanding of the calendar was unexpected this early.
Interestingly, the location of Göbekli Tepe could be described as near the origins of the Tigris and Euphrates - which is how Genesis locates Eden (Gen.2.10-14).
Article at: https://www.sci.news/archaeology/gobekli-tepes-carvings-solar-calendar-13156.html
Paper at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1751696X.2024.2373876#d1e605
Some carvings have now been interpreted as a lunar-solar calendar, and some of the animals as constellations. The spread of agriculture was accompanied by structures to indicate the solstices - such as Stonehenge about 3000 BC when it finally reached the edge of Europe. Such structures were needed to know when best to plant crops. But an understanding of the calendar was unexpected this early.
Interestingly, the location of Göbekli Tepe could be described as near the origins of the Tigris and Euphrates - which is how Genesis locates Eden (Gen.2.10-14).
Article at: https://www.sci.news/archaeology/gobekli-tepes-carvings-solar-calendar-13156.html
Paper at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1751696X.2024.2373876#d1e605
Evidence for the oldest continuously practised religious ceremony has been unearthed in a cave of the Aboriginal GunaiKurnai. They haven’t used it for shelter, but for secluded retreats by magic practitioners known as mulla-mullung. Archaeologists found two miniature fireplaces dated 11,000 & 12,000 years old, ringed by limestone rocks and each containing a single stick of Casuarina wood stripped of side branches and smeared with fatty tissue.
Normally when archaeologists find strange things, they are labelled ‘cultic’ or ‘ritual’ without hope of corroborating evidence. So it is difficult to date the beginning of religious behaviour. But in this case a living community can identify the ritual.
Ethnographers have documented this practice since the 1800s. When someone is ‘bewitched’, objects lopped from or touched by them are attached to the piece of wood and burnt briefly with some human or animal fat.
Article at https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-07-02/gunaikurnai-ritual-fireplaces-sticks-cloggs-cave-archaeology/104034756
Image from: https://www.sciencealert.com/ancient-cave-ritual-from-10000-years-ago-may-be-worlds-oldest-tradition
Paper at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-01912-w
Normally when archaeologists find strange things, they are labelled ‘cultic’ or ‘ritual’ without hope of corroborating evidence. So it is difficult to date the beginning of religious behaviour. But in this case a living community can identify the ritual.
Ethnographers have documented this practice since the 1800s. When someone is ‘bewitched’, objects lopped from or touched by them are attached to the piece of wood and burnt briefly with some human or animal fat.
Article at https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-07-02/gunaikurnai-ritual-fireplaces-sticks-cloggs-cave-archaeology/104034756
Image from: https://www.sciencealert.com/ancient-cave-ritual-from-10000-years-ago-may-be-worlds-oldest-tradition
Paper at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-01912-w
Cave art 51,000 years old has been identified on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Previously it was dated as 44,000 years old, but a newly developed dating method has been employed. The new date is significant because this makes it the oldest representational art, and also because the images include human figures. Art older than 20,000 years tends not to include human figures, which might indicate they are not yet self-conscious enough to depict themselves. This is akin to theorising that we may realise an AI is conscious when it chooses to include itself in art or literature it produces. Sceptics may point out: that the presence of ‘human’ figures is far from certain; that the dating technique is novel; that widely varying dates, (18.7 to 51.2 thousand years), were determined at spots close to each other; and that stick-men are far from self-portraits. There’s going to be a lot of scrutiny of this study.
Article: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/indonesia-39-s-51-200-years-old-narrative-cave-art-brin/BgXRnYO53jNZSg?hl=en
Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07541-7
Article: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/indonesia-39-s-51-200-years-old-narrative-cave-art-brin/BgXRnYO53jNZSg?hl=en
Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07541-7
RSS Feed